LOCAL GOVERNMENT COUNCILS PERFORMANCE AND PUBLIC SERVICE DELIVERY IN UGANDA

Transcription

1 LOCAL GOVERNMENT COUNCILS PERFORMANCE AND PUBLIC SERVICE DELIVERY IN UGANDA Moroto District Council Score-Card Report 2012/2013 Eugene G. Ssemakula. Paul N. Aboi. Pascal Lobur ACODE Public Service Delivery and Accountability Report Series No.23, 2014

2 LOCAL GOVERNMENT COUNCILS PERFORMANCE AND PUBLIC SERVICE DELIVERY IN UGANDA Moroto District Council Score-Card Report 2012/2013 Eugene G. Ssemakula. Paul N. Aboi. Pascal Lobur ACODE Public Service Delivery and Accountability Report Series No.23, 2014

3 Published by ACODE P. O. Box 29836, Kampala Website: Citation: Ssemakula, E., G., et.al. (2014). Local Government Councils Performance and Public Service Delivery in Uganda: Moroto District Council Score-Card Report 2012/13. ACODE Public Service Delivery and Accountability Report Series No.23, Kampala. ACODE 2014 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publisher. ACODE policy work is supported by generous donations and grants from bilateral donors and charitable foundations. The reproduction or use of this publication for academic or charitable purposes or for purposes of informing public policy is excluded from this restriction. ISBN: Cover Illustrations: Construction work on Moroto - Nakapiripirit Road

4 CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES... I ABBREVIATIONS... II EXECUTIVE SUMMARY... V 1. BACKGROUND Introduction District profile Methodology The Score-card Score-card Administration Data Management and Analysis BUDGET PERFORMANCE AND THE STATUS OF SERVICE DELIVERY District Budget Performance Status of Service Delivery Education Health Agriculture Roads Water and Sanitation Functional Adult Literacy Natural Resources SCORECARD PERFORMANCE AND ANALYSIS District Scorecard District Chairperson District Speaker District Councilors INTERPRETATION OF FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Factors Affecting Performance Recommendations... 25

5 REFERENCES ANNEXES PUBLICATIONS IN THIS SERIES... 31

6 LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Political and civil leadership of Moroto... 1 Table 2: Mororo District Sectoral allocations for 2012/ Table 3: Key indicators for education in Moroto District... 8 Table 4: Key indicators for Health... 9 Table 5: Key indicators for Agriculture Table 6: Key indicators for Roads Table 7: Key indicators for Water Table 8: Key indicators for FunctionalAdult Literacy Table 9: Performance of Moroto District Local Council Table 10: District Chairperson Table 11: Performance of District Speaker Table 12: Performance of District Councilors i

7 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Budget performance during FY 2012/ Figure 2: Percentage of Development and Recurrent Budget allocation... 7 Figure 3: Construction projects at Musas Primary School... 9 Figure 4: Health Information at Tapac HCIII Figure 5: Pastoralists in Nadunget Figure 6: Tapac - MorotoRoad Figure 7: L-R: Open mining of marble in Tapac and Tree Nursery in Tapac ii

8 LIST OF ACRONYMS ABEK ACODE ADRA CAO CBO CSO DEC FAL FGD FY HC KAPFS MoU NAADS NGO OPM PRDP RDC UNDP Alternative Basic Education for Karamoja Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment Adventist Development and Relief Agency Chief Administrative Officer Community Based Organization Civil Society Organization District Executive Committee Functional Adult Literacy Focus Group Discussion Financial Year Health Centre Karamoja Action Plan for Food Security Memorandum of Understanding National Agricultural Advisory Services Non-Governmental Organization Office of the Prime Minister Peace Recovery and Development Plan Resident District Commissioner United Nations Development Programme iii

9 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This scorecard was prepared as part of the Local Government Councils Score-card Initiative (LGCSCI). The Initiative is a partnership between the Uganda Local Government Association (ULGA) and the Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment (ACODE). We are indebted to the Democratic Governance Facility (DGF) and its contributing partners: United Kingdom (UK), Denmark, Norway, Ireland, Sweden, The Netherlands, Austria and the European Union (EU) for providing the financial support for the Initiative. The production of this report would not have been possible without the contributions of several institutions and persons. We are particularly indebted to the offices of the District Chairperson, District Speaker, Chief Administrative Officer and the District Clerk to Council for the support to the assessment process on which this report is based. Their timely provision of information and data is deeply appreciated. We also acknowledge the cooperation of the district councilors who are the primary unit of study and analysis for the score-card. We conducted 12 Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) involving community members who provided useful insights and verification with regard to the performance of councilors. We express our unreserved gratitude to each of the participants in these FGDs for their individual and collective contributions. We acknowledge the contributions of the LGCSCI project team at ACODE and the network of LGCSCI researchers across the country that provided useful comments and suggestions on the various drafts of the report. We acknowledge the contribution of the Expert Task Group that provides continuous oversight and intellectual guidance for the development of the scorecard and methodology. Finally, we recognize that there still remain considerable information and data gaps required to fully assess the performance of district councils and councilors in the district. However, we have taken due care to ensure that where such information exists, it is presented as accurately as possible. However, we take responsibility for any errors or omissions. iv

10 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This is the fourth report for Moroto District Local Government for the Local Government Councils Score-card Initiative. The score-card assessed the performance the Local Government Council, the Chairperson, the Speaker and individual Councilors who are vested with powers and responsibilities to ensure effective governance of the respective local governments as stipulated in the Local Governments Act (Cap 243). The score-card is intended to build the capacities of leaders to deliver on their mandates and empower citizens to demand for accountability from elected leaders. The objective of this report is to provide information and analysis based on the assessment for Financial Year (FY) 2012/13. The assessment reviewed documents on planning and budgeting, service delivery monitoring; and Lira District Local Government performance reports. In addition, a review of minutes of sectoral committees and council sittings was undertaken to inform the report about the performance of the business of Council, the Chairperson and individual Councilors. Face-to-face interviews with the targeted community leaders, key informant interviews at service delivery points, and focus group discussions (FGDs) further enriched the fact-finding and assessment process. The major determinant of quality service delivery is the size of the district resource envelope. Moroto District was found to be heavily dependent on central government transfers that account for 90% of district revenue. Locally-generated revenue and donor contributions contributed 3% and 7% respectively. The total budget performance of the district during FY 2012/13 stood at a total of Shs 8.99 billion of which Shs million came as locally generated resources; Shs billion from Central Government transfers; and Shs million in form of donor funds. This was a decline from the previous Financial year 2011/12 where Shs. 519 million was realised from locally generated revenue, 9.22 billion from Central Government transfers and 2.04 billion from donors. Moroto District is among the 26 districts that have been assessed. The assessment in the district covered 13 councilors, 6 of whom were female, while the rest were male. In FY2012/13, Moroto District Council scored a total of 56 out of 100 possible points-- an improvement of 1 point compared to FY 2011/12. The best performance was exhibited under the legislative role (17 out of 25 points). The District Chairperson, Hon. Mark Aol Musooka scored 78 out of 100 points, an improvement of 2 points from 76 in 2011/12. The district v

11 Speaker, Hon. Ceasar Lometo scored 54 out of 100 possible points which was an improvement of 5 points from 49 in 2011/12. On the other hand, the total average score for councilors was 59 out of 100 possible points, an improvement from 41 in FY 2011/12. The best councillor was Hon. Grace Adome, with 70 out of 100 points allotted on all the assessed parameters. She also registered the highest improvement (338%) from 16 points in FY 2011/12. The best male councilor was Hon. Ayo Joseph Otita with 66 points. The major service delivery challenges in Moroto District included the following: conflict among between chairperson and speaker, Failure to run council as per the rules of procedure inadequate staffing; Donor fatigue, limited facilitation for supervision and monitoring; limited participation in sub-county council meetings; failure to follow up on service delivery concerns raised in monitoring reports; and budget cuts by central government. A number of recommendations with regard to resolving conflict and promoting teamwork, raising local revenue and coordination of key actors are made to strengthen the capacity of the district to improve service delivery and accountability to citizens. vi

12 1. BACKGROUND 1.1 Introduction This report presents findings from the 2012/1013 Local Government Scorecard for Moroto District Local Government. Moroto District was one of the pioneer 10 districts in which the scorecard process commenced with the assessment for the financial year (FY) 2008/2009. Over the 4 years of assessment, two councils ( ) and the current council ( ) have been assessed and have benefited from capacity building components of the initiative. In this report, the main focus is on the results of the current Moroto District Council for FY 2012/13 as compared to those of the council s first year in office (FY 2011/12). 1.2 District Profile Located in the north-eastern part of Uganda, Moroto District is one of the oldest in the Karamoja region and Uganda. The district borders 1 Kaabong District to the north, the Republic of Kenya to the east, Amudat District to the south, Nakapiripirit District to the south-west, Napak District to the west and Kotido District to the north-west. The current district comprises one municipality, one rural county (Matheniko) and six sub-counties of Rupa, Nadunget, Tapac, Katikekile, Southern Division and Northern Division. The current leadership of the district is presented in Table 1. Table 1: Political and Civil leadership of Moroto District Local Government Designation Hon. Aol Mark Musooka Hon. Michael L Langat Hon. Calisto Iriama Hon. Grace Adome Hon. Ceasar Lometo Hon. John Baptist Lotee Name District Political Leadership District Chairperson Secretary for Health and Social Services Secretary for Production Secretary for Works and technical Services District Speaker Deputy Speaker District Technical Leadership 1 These have kept changing over time with the creation of new districts such as Nakapiripitin 2000, Kaabong in 2005, Amudat in 2009 and Napak in 2011 Local Government Councils Performance and Public Service Delivery in Uganda: Moroto District Council Score-Card Report 2012/13 1

13 Robert Mulondo Peter Henry Wotunya Pollar Opio Dr. Michael Omeke Caesar Orup Rebecca Ezatiru Moses Aleper Achilla Odongo Paul Abul Moses Lokoroi Nahaman Ojwe Simon Peter Aleper Margaret Iriama John Baptist Lokii CAO Deputy CAO District Planner District Health Officer District Engineer District Internal Audit Chief Finance Officer District Production Officer District Education Officer District Community Development Officer RDC Members of Parliament Moroto Municipality Woman Representative Matheniko County 1.3 Methodology The process of conducting the assessment used a variety of methods consistent with the goals and the theory of change 2 of the scorecard. The following approaches were used in the process The Score-card Tool The scorecard is premised on a set of parameters which assess the extent to which local government council organs and councilors perform their responsibilities. 3 These parameters are based on the responsibilities of the local government councils. The organs assessed include: the district council, district chairperson, district speaker and the individual councilors. The parameter assessed include; legislation, contact with the electorate, planning and budgeting, participation in lower local governments and monitoring of service delivery. 4 The scorecard is reviewed and ratified annually by internal and external teams. The internal team comprises ACODE researchers and local partners. The Expert Task Group, which is the external team, comprises individual experts and professionals from local governments, the public sector, civil society and the academia. 2 See Tumushabe, G., et.al. (2010). Monitoring and Assessing the Performance of Local Government Councils in Uganda: Background, Methodology and Score Card. ACODE Policy Research Series, No.31, Kampala 3 See Third Schedule of the Local Governments Act, Section 8. 4 See, Tumushabe, G., et.al., (2012).Strengthening the Local Government System to Improve Public Service Delivery Accountability and Governance. ACODE Policy Research Series, No. 53, 2012., Kampala. 2 Local Government Councils Performance and Public Service Delivery in Uganda: Moroto District Council Score-Card Report 2012/13

14 1.4.2 Score-card Administration Before commencement of the assessment exercise, an inception meeting was organized on 8 April 2013 for councilors, technical staff and selected participants from civil society and the general public. This meeting was designed as a training workshop on the purpose of the scorecard, nature of assessment, and to orient councilors for the assessment. a) Literature Review. The assessment involved comprehensive review of documents and reports on Moroto District Local Government. The specific documents and reports reviewed are listed in the section of references at the end of this report. b) Key Informant Interviews. Key informants were purposively selected for the interviews owing to their centrality and role in service delivery in the district. Interviews were conducted with the district technical and political leaders. The interviews focused on the state of services, level of funding, and their individual contribution to service delivery in the district. For the political leaders, these interviews are the first point of contact with the researchers and they generate assessment values that feed into the score card. They also offer an opportunity for civic education on roles and responsibilities of political leaders. Interviews with the technical leaders provide an independent voice and an opportunity to verify information. c) Focus Group Discussions (FGDs). Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) were conducted based on the criteria set in the scorecard FGD guide. A total of 12 FGDs were organized in 6 sub-counties in the district.fgds were platforms for civic education and empowerment about the roles of councilors and other political leaders. They were mainly organized to enable voters verify information provided by their respective councilors. In all, 163 people, 65 of whom were women and 98 men, participated in the FGDs. d) Service Delivery Unit Visits. Field visits to service delivery units (SDUs) were undertaken in each sub-county by the research team. In each subcounty, visits were made to primary schools, health centers, water source points, NAADS demonstration sites, FAL centres and roads. Field visits were mainly observatory, and where possible, interviews were conducted with the personnel at the SDUs. These visits were also meant to verify the accuracy of the information provided by the political leaders Data Management and Analysis The data collected during the assessment was both qualitative and quantitative. Qualitative data was categorized thematically for purposes of content analysis. Local Government Councils Performance and Public Service Delivery in Uganda: Moroto District Council Score-Card Report 2012/13 3

15 Thematic categorization helped in the identification of the salient issues in service delivery. Quantitative data was generated through assigning values based on individual performance on given indicators. This data was used to generate frequency and correlation matrices that helped make inferences and draw conclusions on individual and general performance. 4 Local Government Councils Performance and Public Service Delivery in Uganda: Moroto District Council Score-Card Report 2012/13

16 2. BUDGET PERFORMANCE AND THE STATUS OF SERVICE DELIVERY For any local government, the availability of resources is highly reflective of the reach and breadth of service delivery in that particular local government. Under fiscal decentralization districts have a devolved mandate as bodies corporate to collect and generate local revenue while the central government through conditional, unconditional and equalization grants ensures that financial resources are available to run the devolved functions of district local governments. In this chapter we explore the budget performance of Moroto District and link it to the quality of service delivery in the district. 2.1 District budget performance Sources of revenue for Moroto District fall under three categories, namely: locally raised revenue, government transfers and contributions from development partners. In Figure1, the resource envelope available Moroto district during FY 2012/13 is provided. Figure 1: Budget performance during FY 2012/13. 10,000,000,000 9,000,000,000 8,000,000,000 7,000,000,000 6,000,000,000 5,000,000,000 4,000,000,000 3,000,000,000 2,000,000,000 1,000,000, ,100,000 Local Revenue 347,470,657 9,229,533,380 Central Government Transfers 7,993,769,839 2,046,443,128 Donor Funds 661,479,800 Budget Actual Source: Author s calculations based on Moroto District Annual work plans 2012/13. Local Government Councils Performance and Public Service Delivery in Uganda: Moroto District Council Score-Card Report 2012/13 5

17 The total budget performance of the district during FY 2012/13 stood at a total of Shs 8.99 billion of which Shs million (3%) came as locally generated resources; Shs billion (90%) from Central Government transfers; andshs million (7%) in form of donor funds. In terms of budget realization, this accounts for only 75.4% of what had been planned. The major challenge with regard to local revenue collection is the low local revenue base and non-payment of royalties by the Ministry of Energy and Minerals Development. In addition, the district is vulnerable to unpredictable budget cuts by government or complete non-remittance on the part of the donors. For instance, in FY 2012/13, UNDP did not remit any funds to the district, although the district expected this particular contribution to cover about 60% of the total donor funding. 5 There were also challenges with the central government budget cuts during the fourth quarter, especially PRDP releases that affected the performance of the district s budget. Basing on the available resources of Shs 8.99 Bn to the district, the allocations for each of the 12 sectors are indicated in Table 2. Table 2: Moroto District Sectoral allocations for 2012/13 ( 000) 2011/ /13 Education 991,552 2,568,542 Administration 370,569 1,472,719 Health 975,017 1,318,672 Production and Marketing 953, ,450 Roads and Engineering 392, ,526 Water 500, ,079 Community Based Services 393, ,080 Statutory Bodies 404, ,429 Finance 327, ,354 Planning 92, ,895 Natural Resources 41,334 63,431 Internal Audit 10,406 22,980 Source: Moroto District Annual work plans 2012/13 and 2013/14 From Table 2 above, it is evident that the Education Sector, closely followed by Administration and Health received the highest allocations, while Natural Resources and Internal Audit received the least allocation. Worth noting is the nominal increase in allocations to the sectors when compared to the 2011/12 budget outturns. However, there others like Finance and Production and Marketing whose budgets reduced or remained the same respectively. It 5 See Moroto District Annual Work Plan 2013/14 6 Local Government Councils Performance and Public Service Delivery in Uganda: Moroto District Council Score-Card Report 2012/13

18 should also be noted that the district budget is largely a consumptive budget, with the biggest percentage allocated to recurrent expenditure (both wage and nonwage) accounting for 57% of the total budget in contrast to 43% for development as indicated in Figure 2. Figure 2: Percentage of Budget allocation Development and Recurrent 7% 31% 36% 26% Wage Recurent Non wage Recurrent Domestic Development Donor Development Source: Author s calculations based on Moroto District Annual Work Plans 2012/ Status of Service Delivery Service delivery is one of the core objectives of decentralization as stipulated in the second schedule of the Local Government Act. 6 The decentralized services include education services, medical and health services, water, roads, among others. In this assessment, we provide a concise analysis of the state of these decentralized services. Explanatory factors responsible for the analyzed service delivery status Education Moroto District has a total of 16 government-aided primary schools throughout the four rural sub-counties, i.e. Acerer, Nawanatau, Nadunget, Naitakwae, Loputuk and Kasimeri. Primary schools in Nadunget Cub-county; Moroto KDA, Moroto Rainbow, Kaloi, Moroto Army and Rupa primary schools in Rupa Sub-county; Kakingol, Lia and Musas primary schools in Katikekile Sub-county and Tapac and Loyara both primary schools in Tapac Sub-county. Owing to the existential situation of a predominantly pastoral community, the district also has an additional 73 ABEK 7 centres. The key indicators for education within the district are provided in Table 3. 6 See second schedule of Local Governments Act Alternative Basic Education for Karamoja, that is a tailored basic education programme that teaches numeracy and literacy skills to the children while in their homesteads. This was in response to the high dropout rate. Local Government Councils Performance and Public Service Delivery in Uganda: Moroto District Council Score-Card Report 2012/13 7

19 Table 3: Key indicators for Education in Moroto District Indicators Level of achievement 2011/12 Level of achievement 2012/13 Enrolment 6206 pupils 6243 PLE Performance Div 1: 2.6 Div 2: 24.5 Div 3: 26.7 Div 4: 21.9 U: 20.6 Div 1: 3.97 Div 2: 61.5 Div 3: Div 4: 9.83 U: 3.14 No. of qualified primary teachers No. of primary schools No. of students passing in grade one 9 No. of student drop-outs Source: Moroto District Annual Work Plans 2012/13 and 2013/14 The Education Sector is faced with a number of challenges, key among which is the high number of school dropouts. In the financial year under assessment, a total of 2,500 children dropped out of school which is close to half of all the pupils that enrolled in the same year. This is attributed to the prevalent hunger in the region affecting the girl child specifically as most of them have opted to look for work for food in town. Another challenge is with regard to teachers accommodation, since most of the rural schools have no houses for staff accommodation especially in the hard-to-reach mountainous subcounties of Tapac and Katikekile. These challenges notwithstanding, there are noticeable investments and efforts by the district through PRDP funding to construct dormitories and office blocks particularly in Musas PS, Loptuk PS and Rupa PS. In addition, during the financial year, the district constructed 19 pit latrine stance toilets, that is: 3 stances in Kasimeri PS, 5 stances in Loputuk PS, 5 stances in KDA Ps and 4 stances in Rupa PS. Figure 3 below shows some of the works under the Education Sector. 8 Local Government Councils Performance and Public Service Delivery in Uganda: Moroto District Council Score-Card Report 2012/13

20 Figure 3: Construction projects at Musas Primary School Source: ACODE Digital Library Health Moroto has a total of 9 health facilities, i.e. a district hospital (Moroto Regional Referral Hospital), three HC IIIs (Nadine HC III, Tapac HC III, and St Pius Kidepo HC III) and five HCIIs (Loputuk HC II, Rupa HC II, Kosiroi HC II, Kakingol HC II and Lopelipel HC II). The district, however, largely relies on the HCs as the major service delivery units since there are very few private clinics. During the financial year under review, a number of outputs were realized by the district as indicated in Table 4 below. Table 4: Key indicators for Health Indicators 2012/13 Latrine coverage 9.8% Children immunised 7621 %age of approved posts filled with qualified health workers 61 %of Villages withfunctional (existing,trained, and reporting quarterly) VHTs 99 Number of outpatients that visited the Govt. health facilities 28,978 Number of trained health workers in health centers 86 No. of children immunized with Pentavalent vaccine 1743 No. of villages which have been declared Open Deafecation Free (ODF) 21 Source: Moroto District Annual work plans 2012/13 and 2013/14 Local Government Councils Performance and Public Service Delivery in Uganda: Moroto District Council Score-Card Report 2012/13 9

21 Perhaps one of the major achievements by the department of health is in the area of sanitation. Efforts have been undertaken to curb the practice of open defecation. During the financial year, 12 villages in the sub-counties of Rupa and Nadunget were declared free of open defecation. These villages have been used as model villages and have been supported in building local latrines. Pit latrine coverage still stands at 9.8%. The department faced a number of challenges, the most salient one being the low human resource level that stood at 62% and low staff retention levels. Only 12 parishes out of 31 in the district had a functional health center. Figure 5 shows key health info graphics as displayed on the noticeboard at Tapac HCIII. Figure 4: Health Information at Tapac HCIII Agriculture Moroto District is predominantly a pastoral community. This has been changing over the years. There is now encouragement by government and civil society for the residents, especially in the sub-counties of Rupa and Nadunget to engage in crop production alongside cattle keeping. During the year under review, there was a noticeable effort by the district to intensify the orientation of farmers from solely focusing on pastoralism to agro production. As reflected in the annual work plan, the district embarked on ensuring functionality of sub-county farmer forums, provision of advisory services and farm inputs (7991kg beans nabe 4,9393kg of maize 1,378 local goats, procured 150 turkeys,19 local, and 40 local chicken). Table 5 shows the key indicators for agriculture. 10 Local Government Councils Performance and Public Service Delivery in Uganda: Moroto District Council Score-Card Report 2012/13

22 Table 5: Key indicators for Agriculture Sector Indicator 2012/13 Agriculture (Agro produce) Functional Sub-county Farmer Forums 24 PLE Performance Farmers accessing advisory services 1052 No. of qualified primary teachers Farmers receiving agriculture inputs 1052 No. of primary schools Technical back-up visits Livestock Promoting livestock health & productivity 26,450 livestock immunised Figure 5: Pastoralists herding cattle and a millet garden in Nadunget Source: ACODE Digital Library 2013 Despite the noticeable efforts at promoting agro-production a number of concerns were evident regarding the conceptualization and operationalization. At the conceptualization level, there seemed to be overzealousness in promoting agro production as a food security option as opposed to pastoralism. This is an erroneous approach as clearly pointed out by Levine. 8 Contrary to a widespread misconception, crop farming in the agricultural belt is less secure as a livelihood than pastoralism in the dry belt - even for the poor. At the implementation level, there was lack of coordination between the district actors and the centrally run programmes and initiatives. A key example was the Karamoja Action Plan for Food Security (KAPFS). The district executive committee did not only appear ignorant of the whole process but was also not in control of the activities undertaken, as indicated in this extract from the DEC minutes. 8 What to do about Karamoja? Why pastoralism is not the problem but the solution, Simon Levin. FAO/ECHO Local Government Councils Performance and Public Service Delivery in Uganda: Moroto District Council Score-Card Report 2012/13 11

23 The Food Security Action Plan document needed to be summarized in such a way that is easy for mobilizers understand especially the objectives. An induction needed to have been done about the studies done about the applicability of the strategies arrived. 9 The tractor scheme spearheaded by OPM has the same problem of lack of coordination and participation by the district local government. The contractors were hired by OPM, and the district could not exercise any oversight, leading to complaints of acreage that was not uniform and unfair targeting of beneficiaries as noted in the extract of the DEC meeting: On the tractor hire scheme, the chairperson realized that the most vulnerable were not utilizing the opportunity and therefore Food security should not be based on the issue of most vulnerable but to concentrate on increasing food production and the opportunity needs to be used optimally. 10 The supply of cassava cuttings was also done without information from the district authorities which led to rampant dropping of the cuttings randomly and not planted. The same applied to potatoes vines Roads The road network in Moroto District comprises of murram roads save a few kilometers of tarmac within Moroto municipality. As a result, periodic and routine maintenance of these roads forms the bulk of activities undertaken by the department. During the financial year under review, the department undertook periodic maintenance of 11 km of roads (4 km of Nawanatau Achere road and 7km of Rupa - Lokeriaut) and routine maintenance of 50 km (10km of Tapac - Lokwakipi road, 12km of Nadunget - Loputuk road,10km of Katikekile - Nakonyen, 5km of Nakiloro - Kakingol, 3km of Lia -Tepeth, 10km Naoi - Kobebe). Table 6below provides a summary of key indicators in the road sector. Table 6: Key indicators for roads Indicator 2012/13 Length in Km of District roads routinely maintained 50 Length in Km of District roads periodically maintained 11 No. of bridges maintained 0 Length in Km of District roads maintained. 0 Length in km of community access roads maintained 5 No. of Bridges Repaired 0 Length in km. of rural roads constructed (PRDP) 0 Source: Moroto District Annual work plans 2012/13 and 2013/14 9 See DEC minutes 13November See DEC minutes 13November Local Government Councils Performance and Public Service Delivery in Uganda: Moroto District Council Score-Card Report 2012/13

24 The major challenges facing the road sector include lack of transport to facilitate effective supervision, inadequate funding to the sector and rampant flash floods that often render roads impassable after heavy downpour as seen in Figure 6 below. Figure 6: Road to Tapac - Moroto Source: ACODE Digital Library Water and Sanitation Water coverage in Moroto District stands at 37%, 11 one of the lowest in Uganda. The efforts of the district to address this situation were analyzed and the workplan for FY 2012/13 reveals that a number of water points were worked upon by the district as indicated in Table 7 below. Table 7: Key indicators for Water Indicator 2011/ /13 No. of supervision visits during and after construction No. of water pump mechanics, scheme attendants and caretakers trained - 0 No. of water and sanitation promotional events undertaken - 1 No. of water user committees formed 0 13 No. of deep boreholes drilled (hand pump, motorised) 18 9 No. of deep boreholes drilled (hand pump, motorised) (PRDP) 9 5 Length in km. of rural roads constructed (PRDP) 0 Source: ACODE Digital Library, September Uganda Demographic Health Survey, 2011 Local Government Councils Performance and Public Service Delivery in Uganda: Moroto District Council Score-Card Report 2012/13 13

25 The water sector is equally faced with a number of challenges, key of which is the issue of staffing. It was observed that the department had only two staff that is the District Water Officer and a maintenance technician. This definitely had a negative impact on the ability of the department to provide the needed services. In addition, transport for the sector was a problem as the available vehicle was in a poor mechanical condition, rendering it unusable especially in mountainous areas of Tapac Functional Adult Literacy Functional Adult Literacy (FAL) falls under the Community-based Services Department. During the financial year, the department undertook two major activities with regard to FAL that is on spot supervision where 2 visits were conducted by the department in all the four sub-counties of Rupa, Nadunget, Katikekile and Tapac and ensuring that payment of FAL instructor allowances was effected. The situational analysis of FAL indicates very low levels of implementation as shown in Table 8. Table 8: Key indicators for FAL Indicator National Standard 2012/13 Number of instructors Number of participants Number of service centres - 1 Level of coverage 13 No. FAL Learners Trained 12 Source: Moroto District Annual work plans 2012/13 and 2013/ Natural Resources Environment is a key factor in the development of the district. The importance of the environment to the livelihood of the community in Moroto District cannot be underscored. However, the situation in the district presents an escalating degradation of the environment resulting from the cutting of trees for use as firewood, brick making and charcoal burning as well as open cast mining of marble stones. This is not helped by the low funding to the department of natural resources of only Shs 63 m (this translates to 5.2m per month for the whole department), the bulk of which goes to paying salaries. This has made it increasingly difficult for the department to carry out any significant activity and, as a result, only two activities were carried out with regard to protecting the environment during FY 2012/13, that is: formulation of 2 watershed committees and 2 compliance management surveys. However, a number of NGOs like Welt Hunger in Tapac) have responded to the issue of environmental 14 Local Government Councils Performance and Public Service Delivery in Uganda: Moroto District Council Score-Card Report 2012/13

26 degradation by establishing nursery beds within the communities. Figures 7and 8 show the extent of environmental degredation and efforts to curb it in Tapac. Figure 7: L-R: open mining of marble in Tapac and Tree Nursery in Tapac The analysis of the key service delivery indicators presents overall poor performance especially in the sectors of environment, FAL and agriculture. Moroto lags behind key national development indicators. Although some progress is seen in the area of education, roads and health, the district has a lot of gaps that need to be addressed. The overall constraint that cuts through is a low level of sector funding compounded by low local revenue. This continues to affect both capital investment and facilitation of recurrent activities. The other challenge facing the district is low staffing created by the splitting of the district to create Napak District. It is important that the District Council continues to present these challenges to the relevant ministries and development partners. Policy implementation ought to be backed up by requisite financing for Moroto District to fully execute its mandate of good governance and service delivery. Local Government Councils Performance and Public Service Delivery in Uganda: Moroto District Council Score-Card Report 2012/13 15

27 3. SCORECARD PERFORMANCE AND ANALYSIS In this chapter, we present the findings from the assessment derived from the scorecard. It should be noted that the primary responsibility of monitoring local government technical performance rests with the Ministry of Local Government. However, the scorecard is an additional tool that monitors the performance of the political leadership given that the annual assessment by the ministry largely focuses on the technical arm of service delivery. The political arm comprising the district council, which includes: the Chairperson, the Speaker the DEC and Councilors on the other hand provides the oversight role. The actions and decisions undertaken by the political actors largely determine the levels of service delivery. 3.1 Performance of the District Council The performance of Moroto District Council during FY 2012/13 was assessed based on four major parameters, namely: the legislative role, accountability to citizens, planning and budgeting, and monitoring service delivery on national priority programme areas. It should be noted that this was the second year of assessment for the district council and the results have been compared with the performance in the first year of assessment (FY 2011/12). Table 9 provides an analysis of the performance of the district council. 16 Local Government Councils Performance and Public Service Delivery in Uganda: Moroto District Council Score-Card Report 2012/13

28 Table 9: Performance of Moroto District Local Council Performance Indicators Year Actual Score Maximum Scores 2011/ /13 Remarks 1. LEGISLATIVE ROLE Adopted under Min. 07/ Adopted model rules of Procedure with/without DLC/2012 on 2/5/2012. debate (amendments) Paid annual subscription Membership to ULGA Functionality of the Committees of Council Lawful Motions passed by the council Ordinances passed by the council Conflict Resolution Initiatives Public Hearings /6/2013 receipt. No.6215 Executive meetings sat on 20/7/12, 3/8/12, 19/9/12, 18/12/12, 11/1/13, 11/2/13, 11/3/13, 16/4/13, 23/5/13 Evidence of legislative resources Petitions Capacity building initiatives In process drafting Ordinance on Education No petitions held Council has undergone 3 capacity building sessions 2. ACCOUNTABILITY TO CITIZENS PAC was not fully constituted Fiscal Accountability Political Accountability Administrative Accountability Involvement of CSOs, CBOs, Citizens private sector, professionals, and other non-state actors in service delivery Commitment to principles of accountability and transparency Min 03/DLC/13 council debated on corruption by the elite Karimajongs taking away community land District commissions, boards and standing committees in place Evidence of involvement of CSOs in the development of the district No client charter in place though consultations on the process are on going 3. PLANNING & BUDGETING District plans, vision and Existence of Plans, Vision and Mission Statement Approval of the District Budget mission in place Approval of district budget done on time Local Revenue No tangible efforts to raise local revenue 4. MONITORING SERVICE DELIVERY ON NPPAs Committees visited 12 rural Education schools in Tapac, Nadunget and Katilekile, visited 4 Health health centres, 17 newly Water and Sanitation drilled boreholes, 6 roads, and 20 FAL groups Roads Agriculture and Extension Reports discussed in Functional adult Literacy the General Purpose Committee Environment and Natural Resources TOTAL Local Government Councils Performance and Public Service Delivery in Uganda: Moroto District Council Score-Card Report 2012/13 17

29 The general performance of the district remained almost unchanged with only a one-point change from 55 in 2011/12 to 56 points in 2012/13. As presented in the table, however, it is evident that there was improvement by the district in some areas and was recorded in others. Noticeable improvement is observed in the legislative function (from 11 to 17 points), particularly in the functionality of committees, attempts at formulating ordinances, and conflict resolution. There was, however, decline in the planning and budgeting role (from 18 to 11 points) largely attributed to local revenue collection. The alleged marginal increase by Shs 4 million from Shs 308million in 2011/12 to Shs 347 million in 2012/13, this is a decline (from 4.2% to 3.8%) in the total contribution of local revenue to the district budget. This level of performance still places Moroto District Council among the bottom five districts in the assessment 3.2 District Chairperson The chairperson s performance was assessed basing on five parameters, namely: political leadership, legislative role, and contact with the electorate, initiation and participation in development projects and monitoring of service delivery on national priority programme areas. The detailed performance per parameter is provided in Table 10. Table 10: District Chairperson Name Mark Aol Musooka District Moroto Political Party NRM Gender Male Number of Terms 1 Total Score 78 ASSESSMENT PARAMETER Actual Score 2011/ /13 Maximum Score Comments 1. POLITICAL LEADERSHIP (20) Chaired 8 times and delegated 2 times Presiding over meetings of Executive Committee Monitoring and administration Meets with CAO once a week to monitor administration Report made to council on the state of affairs of the district Overseeing performance of civil servants Overseeing the functioning of the DSC and other statutory boards/committees(land board, PAC,) Engagement with central government and national institutions Resolution to double stolen animals Official house surrendered to district for renting out and money used for education bursary scheme 18 Local Government Councils Performance and Public Service Delivery in Uganda: Moroto District Council Score-Card Report 2012/13

30 2. LEGISLATIVE ROLE 13 6 (15) Attended all council meetings Regular attendance of council sessions Motions presented by the Executive Bills presented by the Executive DEC presents motions for approval 3. CONTACT WITH ELECTORATE 6 10 (10) Evidence of mobilizing Programme of meetings with Electorate communities on roads, education, NAADS and Handling of issues raised and feedback to the electorate vaccination Appearance on radio 4. INITIATION AND PARTICIPATION IN PROJECTS IN ELECTORAL AREA 9 9 (10) Projects initiated Contributions to communal Projects/activities Linking the community to Development Partners/ NGOs 5. MONITORING SERVICE DELIVERY ON NATIONAL PRIORITY PROGRAMME AREAS (45) Monitored Agricultural services Monitored Health Service delivery Monitored schools in every sub-county Monitored road works in the district Monitored water sources in every sub-county Monitored functional Adult literacy session Monitored Environment and Natural Resources protection Education bursary scheme Mobilizing land for school feeding programmes MOUs with Welt Hunger, ADRAA, Karamoja cluster Made assessment of success rate of crops Visited 16 schools and all health centres minus Rupa Roads monitored include Moroto-Kidepo, Nawer- Kidepo, Nadunget-Acherer, Katikekile-Tapac and Rupa- Musupo Meetings with communities in Kobebe about mining No visits to FAL TOTAL The performance of the chairperson, Hon. Mark Aol Musooka, improved from 76 in FY 2011/12 to 78 in 2012/13. The major improvements were in the area of monitoring service delivery (from 31 to 37out of 45 maximum points) and contact with the electorate (from 6 to 10 out of 10 maximum points). Indeed, during the financial year, the major achievements of the chairperson were noted in instituting the education bursary scheme, working with development partners and attracting investors to the district. Decline was, however, observed in the area of legislative role where the chairperson dropped from 13 to 6 points out of 15. This is attributed to the failure of DEC to present any bill for consideration by the council. 3.3 District Speaker The parameters for assessing the district speaker included: presiding over and preservation of order in council, contact with the electorate, participation in lower local government, and monitoring service delivery on national priority programme areas. The detailed performance of the district speaker is provided in Table 11. Local Government Councils Performance and Public Service Delivery in Uganda: Moroto District Council Score-Card Report 2012/13 19

31 Table 11: Speaker s Performance in Name Ceasar Lometo District Moroto Gender Male Constituency Youth Number of Terms 1 Political Party NRM Total 54 ASSESSMENT PARAMETER 1. PRESIDING AND PRESERVATION OF ORDER IN COUNCIL Actual Score 2011/ /13 Maximum Score (25) Chairing lawful council/ meetings Rules of procedure Business Committee Records book with Issues/ petitions presented to the office Record of motions/bills presented in council Provided special skills/knowledge to the Council or committees Comments Chaired six times and delegated twice Challenges with rules of procedure as some councilors debate on the same issue more than once No evidence of special skills provided 2. CONTACT WITH ELECTORATE (20) Evidence of meeting Meetings with Electorate youth Written proposal for Moroto youth empowerment Centre Office or coordinating centre in the constituency No proper documentation of using speaker s office as coordinating centre 3. PARTICIPATION IN LOWER LOCAL GOVERNMENT 2 6 (10) Attendance in sub-county Council sessions Attended meetings in Nadunget, Rupa and Tapac Shares information about the youth 4. MONITORING SERVICE DELIVERY ON NATIONAL (45) PRIORITY PROGRAMME AREAS Evidence of visiting health centres, schools Monitoring Health Service delivery Monitoring Education services Monitoring Agricultural projects and agriculture services in Tapac, Nakilor, Nadunget, and Kakingole Monitoring Water service Monitoring Road works Monitoring Functional Adult Literacy Monitoring Environment and Natural Resources TOTAL No evidence of actions taken on water services, road works, FAL and environment There was improvement on the part of the speaker from 49 points to 54 points. The improvement was particularly in the monitoring aspect (13 to 16 points) and participation in lower local governments (from 2 to 6 points) and preservation of order in council. 20 Local Government Councils Performance and Public Service Delivery in Uganda: Moroto District Council Score-Card Report 2012/13

32 3.4 District Councilors The scorecard for councilors was premised on four major themes: Legislative function of council, contact with the electorate, participation in lower local governments and monitoring of service delivery. Table 12 provides a detailed performance of each individual councilor. Local Government Councils Performance and Public Service Delivery in Uganda: Moroto District Council Score-Card Report 2012/13 21

33 Table 12: Performance of Moroto District Councilors FY 2012/13 Legislative role Contact with electorate Participation in LLGs Delivery on NPPA Name Sub-county Party Gender Terms 2011/ /13 % change Plenary Committee Motion Special skill Sub total Meeting electorate Office Subtotal Sub county meetings Health Education Agriculture Water Roads FAL ENR Sub Total Grace Adume Youth NRM F Zubeda Teko South & North Division NRM F Clementina Lochoro Rupa NRM F Joseph Otita Rupa NRM M Michael Langat L. Tapac Ind M Calisto Iriama South Division NRM M Cosmas Ayepa North Division NRM M Regina Kuri Tapac FDC F Abdallah L. Mazio PWD NRM M Betty Akuu PWD NRM F Andrew Pulkol Lochugae Nadunget NRM M Rose Adero Loki Nadunget NRM F John Baptist Lotee Katikekile NRM M Average Local Government Councils Performance and Public Service Delivery in Uganda: Moroto District Council Score-Card Report 2012/13